"For the Kingdom of God is not in talk but in power".
A 'second-generation' Christian is someone who grows up in a Christian home with Christian parents. To many of these Christians, Christianity is only a religion of their parents. They know all the Bible stories but they have not experienced God for themselves. There is a lot of head knowledge about God but they do not know God personally.
The need to experience God personally is pertinent to this present post-modern generation. To accept something as true, we need to experience it for ourselves. Truth to us must be verified by experience - our subjective experiences. What we are not able to verify by experience, we tend to doubt as true. Therefore, the need to experience God is vital if we are to sustain our faith in the long run. For if we do not, we run the risk of eventually falling away from the faith.
Challenge: Write down at least 3 ways people you know have experienced God in their lives. Then, write down at least 2 ways you have experienced God in your own life.
Extracted from the book entitled:Ruels of VICTORY by Adriel Loh
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
TALKING TO YOURSELF
"Why am I discouraged? Why so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will prasie him again - my Saviour and my God!" (Psalm 42:11)
Have you ever seen people talking to themselves? I have even caught myself dong it! David talked to himself. It was actually his spirit chastising his soul :"Why am I discouraged? Why so sad?"
Our spirit-soul interface is where the greatest battles are fought. Our spirit needs to continually monitor our soul. Many people can discipline their sensual or physical appetites. But the old man, the inner self, wants its own way.
David tells his soul what to do. "I will put my hope in God! I will praise Him again!" Saying the right things to yourself is healthy, growing, and disciplined. Have you challenged your soul today?
By Kenneth M. Hansen
Have you ever seen people talking to themselves? I have even caught myself dong it! David talked to himself. It was actually his spirit chastising his soul :"Why am I discouraged? Why so sad?"
Our spirit-soul interface is where the greatest battles are fought. Our spirit needs to continually monitor our soul. Many people can discipline their sensual or physical appetites. But the old man, the inner self, wants its own way.
David tells his soul what to do. "I will put my hope in God! I will praise Him again!" Saying the right things to yourself is healthy, growing, and disciplined. Have you challenged your soul today?
By Kenneth M. Hansen
Monday, 7 June 2010
James 4:8
Is your night one of bereavement? Focusing on God often causes Him to draw near to your grieving heart, bringing you the assurance that He needs the one who has died. The Lord will assure you He has called your departed loved one to be with Him. And as this thought enters your mind, along with the knowledge that your loved one is engaged in a great heavenly mission, a song begins in your heart.
Is your night one of discouragement or failure, whether real or imagined? Do you feel as if no one understands you, and your friends have pushed you aside? Take heart: your Maker "will come near to you" and give you a song - a song of hope, which will be harmonious with the strong, resonant music of His providence. Be ready to sing the song your Maker imparts to you.
Selected from Streams in the Desert
Is your night one of discouragement or failure, whether real or imagined? Do you feel as if no one understands you, and your friends have pushed you aside? Take heart: your Maker "will come near to you" and give you a song - a song of hope, which will be harmonious with the strong, resonant music of His providence. Be ready to sing the song your Maker imparts to you.
Selected from Streams in the Desert
Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night? (Job 35:10)
Do you ever experience sleepless nights, tossing and turning and simply waiting for the first glimmer of dawn? When that happens, why not ask the Holy Spirit to fix your thoughts on God, your Maker, and believe He can fill those lonely, dreary nights into song?
What then? Shall we sit idly down and say
The night has come; it is no longer day?
Yet as the evening twilight fades away,
The sky is filled with stars, invisible to day.
The strength of a ship is only fully demonstrated when it faces a hurricane, and the power of the gospel can only be fully exhibited when a Christian is subjected to some fiery trial. We must understand that for God to give 'songs in the night', He must first make it night.
By Nathaniel William Taylor
What then? Shall we sit idly down and say
The night has come; it is no longer day?
Yet as the evening twilight fades away,
The sky is filled with stars, invisible to day.
The strength of a ship is only fully demonstrated when it faces a hurricane, and the power of the gospel can only be fully exhibited when a Christian is subjected to some fiery trial. We must understand that for God to give 'songs in the night', He must first make it night.
By Nathaniel William Taylor
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temption (Matthew 26:4)
Dear friends, never go out into the danger of the world without praying first. There is always a temptation to shorten your time in prayer. After a difficult day of work, when you kneel at night to pray with tired eyes, do not use your drowsiness as an excuse to resign yourself to early rest. Then when the morning breaks and you realise you have overslept, resist the temptation to skip your early devotion or to hurry through it.
Once again, you have not taken the time to 'watch and pray.' Your alertness has been sacrificed, and there will be irreparable damage. Temptations are waiting to confront you, and you are not prepared to withstand them. Within your soul you have a sense of guilt, and you seem to be lingering some distance from God. It certainly is no coincidence that you tend to fall short of your responsibilities on those days when you have allowed your weariness to interfere with your prayer life.
When we give in to laziness, moments of prayer that are missed can never be redeemed.
By Frederick William Robertson
Once again, you have not taken the time to 'watch and pray.' Your alertness has been sacrificed, and there will be irreparable damage. Temptations are waiting to confront you, and you are not prepared to withstand them. Within your soul you have a sense of guilt, and you seem to be lingering some distance from God. It certainly is no coincidence that you tend to fall short of your responsibilities on those days when you have allowed your weariness to interfere with your prayer life.
When we give in to laziness, moments of prayer that are missed can never be redeemed.
By Frederick William Robertson
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Mark 4:35 "Let us go over to the other side"
Even though we follow Christ's command, we should not expect to escape the storm. In this passage of Scripture, the disciples were obeying His command, yet they encountered the fiercest of storms and were in great danger of being drowned. In their distress, they cried out for Christ's assistance.
Gently rebuking His disciples, Christ asked, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" In effect, He was saying, "Why didn't you face the storm victoriously and shout to the raging winds and rolling waves, "You cannot harm us, for Christ, the mighty Saviour, is on board?'
If your are ever to "be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power", your strength will be born during a storm.
Christ said, "Let us go over to the other side" - not "to the middle of the lake to be drowned."
Selected and extracted from Streams In The Desert.
Gently rebuking His disciples, Christ asked, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" In effect, He was saying, "Why didn't you face the storm victoriously and shout to the raging winds and rolling waves, "You cannot harm us, for Christ, the mighty Saviour, is on board?'
If your are ever to "be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power", your strength will be born during a storm.
Christ said, "Let us go over to the other side" - not "to the middle of the lake to be drowned."
Selected and extracted from Streams In The Desert.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Ecclesiates 3:11
God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human hearts, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.
Sand in your shoes. People in your family. Coworkers in your office. All these things can be a source of irritation. We want to put things right, now. Sometimes we can. Other things take time.
God has all the time in the world. He is willing to wait for fruit to ripen, for light to dawn, for promises t be fulfilled. He knows we are just dust, but He puts us in right places to make us shine. Sometimes we feel like the oyster, constantly trying to smooth over life's irritations. But He wants us to know deep down we're really His pearls. And He won't stop polishing until we're perfect!
Jesus hung on a cross to pay for our deficits. He'll help us hang in there with each other until the process is complete.
By Marcia Swearingen
Sand in your shoes. People in your family. Coworkers in your office. All these things can be a source of irritation. We want to put things right, now. Sometimes we can. Other things take time.
God has all the time in the world. He is willing to wait for fruit to ripen, for light to dawn, for promises t be fulfilled. He knows we are just dust, but He puts us in right places to make us shine. Sometimes we feel like the oyster, constantly trying to smooth over life's irritations. But He wants us to know deep down we're really His pearls. And He won't stop polishing until we're perfect!
Jesus hung on a cross to pay for our deficits. He'll help us hang in there with each other until the process is complete.
By Marcia Swearingen
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